Trust your gut -- as long as you're an expert. So says a new study. How expert someone is within a particular domain has a positive impact on their ability to make an accurate gut decision," said Rice's Erik Dane, lead author of a study published last month in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. However, he added, "Even if you're an expert, intuitive decision-making is better for some types of tasks than others. Tasks that can be solved through predetermined steps, like math problems, are not as conducive to intuitive decision-making as less-structured tasks, which may include certain strategic or human resource management problems."
Via Gina Stepp, donhornsby, Anne Egros

David Hain's insight:

Nice take on decision making - but making a decision and learning from it right or wrong strikes me as the key thing.

(From the article): "Once again, the researchers found that intuition was more effective for those with high expertise. In the intuition condition, participants with high expertise demonstrated higher task performance. In the analysis condition, those with high expertise performed no better than those with low expertise."

Sometimes some decisions are made with no logic nor intuition but just by luck. If your decision was right you can always say it was intuition while in fact is is like playing red or black at the roulette each time you have 50% chances to win.

There are basically two types of person: one that believes that there are two types of person, and another that doesn’t. Despite having reservations about over-simplistic categorization, there are some theories which carry both practical wisdom and managerial relevance. One of the inspiring ones is the distinction between hedgehogs and foxes made by British philosopher Isaiah Berlin. He distinguishes between people who strive for a coherent world view with logic and an organising principle (hedgehogs), and others who are comfortable with loose ends and with not relating things systematically to a bigger picture (foxes).

David Hain's insight:

Are you a hedgehog or a fox? And are you developing hedgehogs or foxes? In the digital, VUCA age, the answer may be increasingly important!

In 2010 Trust Across America introduced the FACTS® Framework, a comprehensive unbiased barometer of the corporate integrity of America’s largest 2000 US public companies. The Framework identifies companies whose leadership is going beyond doing just what is legal to choosing what is right in meeting all stakeholder needs. The FACTS® Framework is the most comprehensive and data driven ongoing study on this subject. We analyze companies quarterly and rank order showing trends by company, sector and market capitalization. Read more about the Framework at this link.

Every year since 2012 we have announced our “Top Ten Most Trustworthy Public Companies” via the Trust Across America blog. The following table displays the current returns of every annual list vs. the S&P 500 since its publication.

David Hain's insight:

More empirical proof that increasing trust pays out. Perhaps corporate integrity should be a target before shareholder value, as one seems to follow the other!

We are in a paradigm and most of us are blind to it. You could call it Theory X or top-down, but one way to summarise it is that we are in a parent-child paradigm. There have been shades of this throughout history but perhaps none more dominant than the Industrial Era which was fuelled by the worldview that employees, then largely uneducated, are naturally stupid and lazy and must be monitored, controlled and motivated.

Incredibly, this is still the prevailing paradigm in workplaces today. We might have upgraded it a little, but not much. (Just read this mind blowing article by Aeon about the ‘stupidity paradox’ in organisations.) But what about companies that invest heavily in employee engagement programmes and making their people happy? Often this is just a different shade of being a parent – either a caring parent, or a coercive parent! The underlying belief is still: “people need to be motivated and taken care of to be productive.”

“We already know how to be good parents at work. The alternative, partnership, is something we are just learning about. Our difficulty with creating partnership is that parenting – and its stronger cousin, patriarchy – is so deeply ingrained in our muscle memory and armature that we don’t even realise we are doing it.”

– Peter Block, Stewardship

David Hain's insight:

Paternalism is the enemy of genuinely distributed leadership. Bosses need to stop behaving like parents!

I agree, but having worked in private industry and in public schools I am not hopeful. What we need is to be attentive to the pretexts and subtexts of our organizations that lead to oppressive structures, so we can shift paradigms and liberate adults by treating them as responible, autonomous beings.

Is our objective to create algorithms so we can simply replace people who stand up? Being a rebel is fun. It upsets the ones who simply want conformity and compliance.

Being adult-adult doesn’t mean we get to do what we want or that there is a leadership vacuum. It means we are truly in a partnership, [responsible for our actions and] to each other.

“How do you make society both more productive and more humane at the same time?” Because if you think about it, it’s a beautiful, giant question. I think that the grandeur of that question and the idea that, “Okay, then you’re running a company,” or, “You’re running a non-profit,” or…you’re doing what sort of fits into that. But the idea of a, “how do you make things both more productive and more humane at the same time,” is one of those human questions.

David Hain's insight:

This is a pretty big question for leaders everywhere - marrying productivity and human wellbeing. The answer isn't shareholder value!

For a long time, researchers and economists believed that humans made logical, well-considered decisions. In recent decades, however, researchers have uncovered a wide range of mental errors that derail our thinking. Sometimes we make logical decisions, but there are many times when we make emotional, irrational, and confusing choices.

Psychologists and behavioral researchers love to geek out about these different mental mistakes. There are dozens of them and they all have fancy names like “mere exposure effect” or “narrative fallacy.” But I don’t want to get bogged down in the scientific jargon today. Instead, let’s talk about the mental errors that show up most frequently in our lives and break them down in easy-to-understand language.

Here are five common mental errors that sway you from making good decisions.

David Hain's insight:

Confirmation bias and other regular mental traps - enemies of good decisions!

In this article, we share the results of new research quantifying the financial benefits of processes that “debias” strategic decisions. The size of this prize makes a strong case for practicing behavioral strategy—a style of strategic decision making that incorporates the lessons of psychology. It starts with the recognition that even if we try, like Baron Münchhausen, to escape the swamp of biases by pulling ourselves up by our own hair, we are unlikely to succeed. Instead, we need new norms for activities such as managing meetings (for more on running unbiased meetings, see “Taking the bias out of meetings”), gathering data, discussing analogies, and stimulating debate that together can diminish the impact of cognitive biases on critical decisions. To support those new norms, we also need a simple language for recognizing and discussing biases, one that is grounded in the reality of corporate life, as opposed to the sometimes-arcane language of academia. All this represents a significant commitment and, in some organizations, a profound cultural change.

David Hain's insight:

Useful contribution to strategic decision making and how to prevent bias loss from McKinsey.

For decades, introversion was looked at as something to overcome, almost like an illness. The way to win in life was through charisma, outspokenness, and self-promotion.

Even now, in an increasingly noisy world, introverts may feel added pressure to take one of two paths: force themselves into more extroverted behavior, or become even more reserved and shrink back to themselves.

My guest Susan Cain says both paths are wrong and in fact, rob the world of the unique contributions introverts make when they choose to be true to themselves.

Chief executives have traditionally sat at the intersection of the external environment and the internal organization, observing chaos and translating it into clear and actionable instructions. At this “nerve center” for essential information, our popular perception of the “un-disruptable” CEO is of a rigid, impenetrable figure, successfully staring down external adversity. Whether this image ever truly matched reality is debatable, but we know one thing for sure: it definitely no longer applies. To be un-disruptable today requires much more than steering companies through singular (if monumental) events—it demands leaders navigate constant turbulence, continuously adjusting their actions accordingly.

David Hain's insight:

Lots of consultant jargon here, but an insightful approach to skills increasingly needed by 21c CEOs.

The main goal of choosing to take ownership of the issue to begin with was ensuring everybody could get back to work and resume pre-crisis levels of productivity and pride in their jobs. Don’t allow an issue to define you, or the organization. Everybody has lots to do – especially you. While you have to learn from your mistakes, avoid comparing every situation to the crises of yesterday. Stop yourself from reminding everybody constantly of what has already transpired. The issue occurred. You took responsibility for it, held people accountable and, with everybody’s help, you fixed it. You pledged not to make the same mistake again. It’s in your rearview. Keep it there. And get back to the exciting work of creating enduring value for all your stakeholders.

The next time you’re in the midst of a crisis, don’t try to deflect, or underestimate people, or nitpick about whose fault it was. Choose to take responsibility as the leader. Own the problem, take a hard-nosed approach, hold people accountable, present a solution, get to work, and don’t make the same mistake twice. You’ll stave off disaster, fix problems faster, build trust, and get better results.

Organizations have always needed leaders who are good at recognizing emerging challenges and inspiring organizational responses. That need is intensifying today as leaders confront, among other things, digitization, the surging power of data as a competitive weapon, and the ability of artificial intelligence to automate the workplace and enhance business performance. These technology-driven shifts create an imperative for most organizations to change, which in turn demands more and better leaders up and down the line.

Unfortunately, there is overwhelming evidence that the plethora of services, books, articles, seminars, conferences, and TED-like talks purporting to have the answers—a global industry estimated to be worth more than $50 billion—are delivering disappointing results. According to a recent Fortune survey, only 7 percent of CEOs believe their companies are building effective global leaders, and just 10 percent said that their leadership-development initiatives have a clear business impact. Our latest research has a similar message: only 11 percent of more than 500 executives we polled around the globe strongly agreed with the statement that their leadership-development interventions achieve and sustain the desired results.

In our survey, we asked executives to tell us about the circumstances in which their leadership-development programs were effective and when they were not. We found that much needs to happen for leadership development to work at scale, and there is no “silver bullet” that will singlehandedly make the difference between success and failure

David Hain's insight:

McKinsey survey confirms my own much less formal conclusion from clients - leadership development needs context, reach and especially follow-through to be really meaningful.

When you multitask, you tend to make more mistakes. When you toggle back and forth between tasks, the neural networks of your brain must backtrack to figure out where they left off and then reconfigure, Dr. Miller said. That extra activity causes you to slow down, and errors become more likely.

“People are much more efficient if they monotask,” he said.

Trying to multitask also impedes creativity, he said. Truly innovative thinking arises when we allow our brains to follow a logical path of associated thoughts and ideas, and this is more likely when we can focus on a single mental pathway for an extended period.

The brain is like a muscle: It becomes stronger with use, Dr. Miller said. As with physical exercise, the more we strengthen our mental connections by focusing on one task to the exclusion of all others, the better we can perform.

Over the past 20 years CEOs have witnessed tremendous upheavals as a result of globalisation and technological change. In our 20th CEO Survey, nearly 1,400 CEOs share their views on the impact of these forces on growth, talent, trust and society. In this short video, PwC’s global chairman Bob Moritz, reflects on how today we’re at an inflection point; for leaders it’s now time to both raise and communicate the role of business in society and the positive impact it can have.

When you ask CEO’s and CHRO’s what their key priorities are for the coming year, talent management always is one of the issues high on the list. Talent management is an easy and safe choice. Nobody will argue that talent management is not important. Supervisory Boards love to talk about succession and talent management. Talent management is generally seen as something long-term. When you hear terms as “strategic”, “long-term”, “future” and “investment”, you must be careful. For talent management this means: it is important, but not urgent. For the CEO, it means: I have ticked the box, but now HR can deal with it. Of course, I will visit the final session of the senior management program, of course, I will personally mentor one or two high potentials, but please, do not bother me too much about talent management, I have more urgent matters on my plate. A big challenge for organisations is to make talent management urgent, and to make it a priority of today, not of the future.

David Hain's insight:

Tom Haak of HR Trend Institute on how to get more form your talent in 2017.

Big trend is to focus on today ... it is no longer necessary to divide the workforce in crude segments (“High Potentials”, “Middle Management”, “The older employees”). Moved people based on today, give potentials a chance earlier and have an organic approach to development .

To lead a good life, we need to make good decisions: manage our health and financial affairs, invest in appropriate relationships, and avoid serious lapses like falling for online scams. What equips us to do this? One candidate is IQ: after all, people who score higher on intelligence tests tend to go on to do better academically and in their careers. But many of us know intellectual titans who still make grave errors of judgment in their lives. Book-smart doesn’t necessarily make you life-smart, and a new article in the journal Thinking Skills and Creativity examines the utility of IQ in navigating existence, and how another mental ability may put it in the shade.

Whereas IQ is – crudely speaking – a measure of the mental horsepower we have for handling abstract content, some researchers say that “critical thinking” – the ability to make judgments dispassionately without jumping to false conclusions – is a separate ability. To find out if critical thinking ability might be important for real-life outcomes, perhaps even more than IQ, Heather Butler of California State University and her colleagues asked 244 participants – a mix of students and adults recruited online – to complete tests, of their IQ and critical thinking skills.

David Hain's insight:

More evidence that just being bright doesn't't fully cut the mustard for success. And critical thinking skills can be taught and developed!

Another common mistake that Dr Goldsmith observes in leaders is the penchant for "adding too much value". Or, put another way, the bad habit of wanting to add one's two cents worth in every discussion.

"For example, a young, smart and enthusiastic worker comes up to you with an idea. You think it's great. Instead of saying it's a great idea and leaving it at that, your natural tendency is to say - why not add this or change this instead?" he says.

While it may seem to be better for all parties if ideas are improved upon, Dr Goldsmith says it is not always the case.

He explains that the problem with this is that the quality of the idea may go up by 5 per cent, but the commitment of the young worker to execute it will go down by 50 per cent. That's because it is no longer the young man's idea, but the leader's.

"We get so wrapped up trying to improve the quality this much, but we damage the commitment even more," says Dr Goldsmith.

When our top performers, our really strong team members, and our best front-line workers know we’ve incorporated continuous coaching opportunities as a means for growth (and eventual advancement), there is natural spike in productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency. When our people know we want to provide continuous room for development for their benefit, it’s quite pleasing to see how well they respond.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to adopt a culture of coaching in our workplace.

Everyone benefits from coaching. A quick google search of your favorite renowned leaders, artists, or performers will prove that many willingly declare to consistently retaining a dedicated coach.

If you aren’t already doing so, the great news is that it’s never too late.

David Hain's insight:

Coaching is for everybody to develop their potential. If you see it as only for problem-children you are missing out on a huge opportunity!

Coaching should be the basic driver of every corporate structure. It should be part of the DNA regardless of size or industry. It does not mean that structure goes completely away, just that attitudes shift to allow for innovation, adaptation and execution!

So many leaders undervalue and overlook the value does to transform of coaching to transform people and organizations. Coaching is a simple skill , leveraging other perspectives moves the needle I see it in my own coaching where my leaders exceed their goals by 14% over a three year period collectively.

Resilience matters. In fact, it’s become pretty much the No.1 topic in management and leadership circles. We’re all supposed to be made of Teflon. We’re supposed to be able to cope with the crap that the world (and the world of work) chucks at us. And if we can’t cope we’re supposed to pop off to the hot yoga studio to sweat it out. Or colour-in a complex series of geomantic shapes in super bright fluoro colours. Mindfulness has become the talk of the town and the chief chatter in the office.

However, I can’t help but think that all this is missing the mark when it comes to resilience.

Gradually, the increased interest in resilience as a construct in recent years has seemed to shift the focus away from poor behaviour and poor culture and onto the victim of the poor behaviour and poor culture.

The rise of resilience is all too frequently leading to something sinister and something that needs rejecting out of hand; victim blaming.

Instead of the focus being on the poor manager or on the terrible culture and on the toll that these things take on those who experience them, it’s now much more frequently on the way that the staff can learn to cope with these ‘things’. It’s as if the answer to working for a bully or working in a culture that is less than ideal is to pop off at lunchtime to do some Tai Chi in the local park. And breathe. You’ll feel better equipped to cope with your bullying boss in the afternoon.

Everybody loves a top 100 list. It could be the best dog breeds, best cities to live in, or in this case, the highest rated CEOs. I love Glassdoor's annual list of the top 100 highest rated CEOs because it's based on how the employees of major corporations value their most senior leader.

This year the highest-rated CEO was Benno Dorer from the Clorox Company. Most people are surprised the CEO of a global company that sells brand names like Kingsford Charcoal, Brita water filters, and Hidden Valley salad dressing tops the list.

We sometimes forget, as people who are enamored with the latest and greatest, that great leaders aren't just in technology companies. Sure we love glamorous examples like Elon Musk or Tim Cook but great leaders can be present in any industry, "glamorous" or not.

David Hain's insight:

Here is a leader who can obviously live these good practices, not just spout them!

It can be tempting to dismiss it as time-consuming or handholding, but both of those assumptions are mistaken. In his book, The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier gives busy leaders advice on how to coach effectively.

In ten minutes or less, you can ask strategic and thought-provoking questions that can help drive beneficial changes in behavior, help build team cohesiveness, and get things done effectively.

Here are his seven questions to add to your coaching toolbox to make your life easier and get big results.

David Hain's insight:

Some really excellent coaching questions here, for professional coaches and managers alike!

Shadow work can be done in a wide variety of ways, including reflection, meditation or journaling.

There is no right way to do this vulnerable work, the key thing is you use a practice that enables you to be profoundly honest with your shadow, explore it with perspective and transcend it in a generative way.

One practice we particularly like is the 3–2–1 shadow process developed by Diane Hamilton. Its called the 3–2–1 Process because it “uses shifts in perspective as a way of identifying and integrating shadow material. 3–2–1 refers to 3rd-person, 2nd-person, and 1st-person”. This practice has 3 parts.

Face it — Locate the shadow within your mind and body. Don’t judge it, just be mindful of it and look at it from every angle in the 3rd person.Talk with it — Ask your shadow, why are you here in the 2nd person. What do you want to do with me?Be it — Switch roles, become your shadow (1st person). Speak back to yourself by embodying your shadow.We are whole people living in whole contexts. Opening up to the gifts of being whole — both our light and our shadow — is vital to living life rich with wellbeing and wholeness.

David Hain's insight:

You're never without your shadow - and this post demonstrates how valuable it is to you!

Startup Land, the place where I've been living for the past year, is full of ridiculous jargon. I thought I'd start a list to give those of you who have never been to Startup Land or are planning on holidaying there in the future, a brief understanding of the lingo in the hope that you'll be able to communicate with the locals. If you're a current resident of Startup Land, feel free to add your own.

Barton and Halberstadt say:People’s names, like shape names, are not entirely arbitrary labels. Face shapes produce expectations about the names that should denote them, and violations of those expectations … feed into more complex social judgments, including voting decisions.Leaders emerge through promotion for hard work, securing votes for political office, or physically intimidating their underlings. But research is now showing that a distinctive face, one which advertises qualities that are rare in your organisation, or a face congruent with your name, may play a bigger role in our success than we previously imagined.

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